BurmaNet News, November 7, 2006

[Editor]

November 7, 2006 Issue # 3082


INSIDE BURMA
Irrawaddy: Activists detained at Shwedagon Pagoda
DVB: NLD call for precise statement on leader’s health
AP: Myanmar allows North Korean cargo ship in distress to enter port
Kaladan News: Nasaka extorts money for gossiping

ON THE BORDER
AFP: Myanmar opens passport offices in Thai border towns

REGIONAL
Mizzima: Gas campaigners to agitate against Korea and India
Irrawaddy: More migrant identity applications submitted to Burma

INTERNATIONAL
AP: Top U.N. official to meet Myanmar leaders and detained Nobel laureate
Aung San Suu Kyi this week
Mizzima: Burma number one internet enemy

OPINION / OTHER
mongabay.com: Stopping deforestation could net Burma $1 billion

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

November 7, Irrawaddy
Activists detained at Shwedagon Pagoda - Aung Lwin Oo

A group of pro-democracy activists, including members of Burma’s main
opposition party, were detained briefly at the country’s revered Shwedagon
Pagoda in Rangoon and warned of limiting their religious services.

Fourteen activists—most of them members of the opposition National League
for Democracy—were taken into custody by security officials as they
prepared to pray for the welfare of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi,
according to Naw Ohn Hla, who was among the detainees.

“We were taken by security officials, including police from special
branch, and escorted to the [Shwedagon] trustees’ office,” she said. The
activists were released in the evening after being warned not to engage in
political activities at the pagoda.

“We were told that according to the regulations, we cannot gather in
groups of more than five people,” she said, adding that the detained
activists carried out their prayers while in custody.

Supporters of the NLD have made regular visits to Shwedagon every
Tuesday—the day of the week on which Suu Kyi was born—since July 2004.

Officials have stepped up measures against several opposition campaigns
organized by the 88 Generation Students group following the arrest of the
group’s five leading members. The latest campaign, called Multiple
Religious Prayer, began on October 29 and ended last Saturday.

The prayer campaign urged members of all faiths to pray for a resolution
to the political and social problems in Burma.

During a press briefing last Thursday, Burma’s police chief Brig-Gen Khin
Yi charged that activists are exploiting the country’s sacred places for
political reasons. He also warned that authorities will take actions
against those participating in social or religious campaigns sponsored by
the group if they receive complaints about their activities.

The group maintains that their campaign was peaceful and disciplined.

Following the 88 Generation group’s campaign, Shwedagon’s trustees’ office
has carried announcements over loudspeakers warning pilgrims not to
participate in the 88 Generation’s activities.

Photos of the 88 Generation campaigns were placed on the platform of the
pagoda, according to Naw Ohn Hla.

____________________________________

November 6, Democratic Voice of Burma
NLD call for precise statement on leader’s health

National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders had again urged Burma’s
military junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to release a
precise statement on the health condition of their detained leader Aung
San Suu Kyi.

They are becoming more concerned for the Nobel laureate’s health as the
authorities have been saying different things about their reasons for the
refusal to allow her family doctor to see her.

‘What we want to pledge, urge the authorities concerning the health of Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi is, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is not only the leader of the
NLD, but also the leader of all the people,’ said one of the spokesman of
NLD Myint Thein. ‘And she plays a vital role in the national
reconciliation. Therefore, her health is not for the individual or an
organization. It is especially important for the whole country. Therefore,
she should be allowed to be seen once a week and the authorities concerned
should issue statements on her health conditions. We demand this.’

Similarly, veteran politicians also expressed their concerns over her
health and urged the authorities to allow her family doctor see her once a
week.

____________________________________

November 7, Associated Press
Myanmar allows North Korean cargo ship in distress to enter port

Yangon: Myanmar permitted a North Korean cargo vessel in distress to
anchor at a port over the weekend, and con-ducted an inspection that found
no cargo violating U.N. sanctions, said a government statement sent to
em-bassies and obtained Tuesday.

The Myanmar Foreign Ministry statement said authorities received a
distress call Saturday from the vessel and allowed it to enter one of
Myanmar's ports on "humanitarian grounds."

"Myanmar authorities conducted an inspection on board the North Korean
cargo vessel and found no suspi-cious material or military equipment,"
said the statement.

The ship left Myanmar early Monday, according to the statement sent to
several embassies that day. Offi-cials from two of the embassies, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, read the statement aloud to The
As-sociated Press.

The statement did not say where the ship was headed or where it had been.
Nor did it detail the nature of the distress call, saying only that
Myanmar authorities supplied the ship with fuel and water and food for its
crew.
The U.N. Security Council adopted a sanctions resolution to punish North
Korea for its first-ever nuclear test, which was conducted last month. The
sanctions forbid trade with North Korea in weapons and luxury goods.

____________________________________

November  7, Kaladan News
Nasaka extorts money for gossiping

Buthidaung, Arakan State: In Burma gossiping can lead to extortion. The
Nasaka, Burma ’s border security force took money from a group who were
gossiping in a house after having food in Tin May village, Buthidaung
township, Arakan State .

The people gossiping are Zaffar Ahamed (40), son of Nazir Hussain, Rahman
(32), son of Nur Mohamed and Zakir Ahamed (55), son of Hussain Ullah. They
all belong to Tin May village, Buthidaung Township .

On October 12, at about 10:00 p.m. after dinner, the group gathered at
Zaffar Allam’s house and were gossiping and drinking tea.

Meanwhile, Nasaka personnel from a nearby Nasaka camp went their village
on patrol duty. They found the group gossiping. The Nasaka arrested them
alleging that they were discussing anti-government maters.

“They are poor farmers, how could they be in a discussion which was anti-
government. It is a fabricated and false allegation to extort money,” said
a village elder who was reluctant to be named.

After their arrest, they were severely beaten up in front of their family
members. The Nasaka is aware that if the Rohingyas are not beaten up, they
will not able to extort money from community members.

The family members of the group intervened and managed to pay Nasaka kyat
50,000/0 for their release. But, the villagers have been warned not to
report the matter to higher authorities. They were threatened with
punishment should they talk about the incident, said another villager.

“A village leader said, “We have to do forced labor, we are socially
discriminated against, arbitrarily arrested and tortured. Money is
extorted from us on false cases and our movement is restricted. Our sons
and daughters are banned from marrying, our young generation is deprived
of education, our land is confiscated, new Buddhist settlers are invited
to Arakan to settle, our economy is crippled on a daily basis and we are
politically and religiously oppressed. In such a situation, how Rohingyas
will survive in Arakan is a big question?”

____________________________________

November 7, Irrawaddy
Local authority shake-up in Burma - Shah Paung

A recruiting campaign is under way in Burma for what appears to be a new
generation of local administration officials.

The jobs on offer are with the country’s Ward and Village Peace and
Development Councils and pay an above-rate starting monthly salary of
50,000 kyat (US $38). “I worked as WVPDC chairman in my ward for about 10
years and never earned that,” commented one retired Rangoon ward chairman.

Applicants for the WVPDC positions must be aged between 35 and 45, married
and hold higher education qualifications. Incumbent office-holders are
being told they need not apply, and in at least one township, near the
Three Pagodas Pass on the Burma-Thailand border, residents say serving
members of the local WVPDC have been told they must resign to make way for
newly-recruited officials.

Candidates chosen for the police and immigration departments began their
month-long training in many townships on November 1. One successful
candidate in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy that trainees were on full salary
from the start and received such perks as motorcycles and mobile phones.

In Mon State, sources said bribes were being offered to local authorities
to secure places on the training programs.

____________________________________
ON THE BORDER

November 7, Agence France Presse
Myanmar opens passport offices in Thai border towns

Yangon: Myanmar's military government has opened three temporary
passport-issuing offices on the Thai-Myanmar border aimed at people hoping
to work in Thailand, state-run media reported Tuesday.

"Temporary passports will be issued in a day for Myanmar citizens who wish
to work in Thailand only," the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

The three temporary passport offices were opened simultaneously Monday in
the border towns of Myawady, Kawthoug and Tachilek, the paper reported.

It said up to 30,000 people could apply for the temporary passports, which
would be available for people planning to work in Thailand, and for
Myanmar citizens already in the neighbouring country.

Some 8,961 illegal Myanmar workers based in Bangkok had already sent their
applications for passports to Myanmar's foreign affairs ministry at the
request of the ministry of labour in Thailand, the paper said.

In August this year, Thailand and Myanmar announced they planned to grant
special passports for 10,000 workers in an effort to prevent illegal
migrants flooding into Thailand.

At the time, they said Myanmar workers would need the passports in order
to apply for a visa to work in Thai-land.

Between 500,000 and 600,000 Myanmar workers are registered in Thailand,
while about one million illegal migrants -- 80 percent of them from
Myanmar --  are thought to be in the kingdom.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

November 7, Mizzima News
Gas campaigners to agitate against Korea and India - Nem Davies

Yet another round of massive demonstrations against Korea and India for
their involvement in the Shwe Gas project in Burma is in the offing.

Activists plan to demonstrate outside embassies of Korea and India and
offices of gas exploration companies involved in the Shwe Gas project in
Burma in the third week of November.

Anti-Shwe Gas activists from16 countries including United Kingdom,
Philippine, East Timor, India, and Korea will protest against South
Korea's Daewoo Company, India's state owned company Gas Authority of India
Ltd (GAIL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on November 15.

The proposed pipeline is likely to cross into India, from the exploration
site in Arakan state to Chin State in Western Burma and pass through
India's
Mizoram, Assam and Siliguri in North Bengal.

"People have shown much awareness about the Shwe Gas pipe line. There has
been an increase in supporters following the awareness campaign and they
have shown their solidarity, "said Kim, the coordinator of Shwe Gas
Campaign.

According to the statement released yesterday" Burma's military regime
will earn nearly 17 billion dollars in profit from the Shwe Gas project in
Western Burma"

"The Shwe gas pipeline is potentially the single largest source of revenue
for the Burmese military government, which annually spends upwards of 40
percent of their budget arming a military that devastates the lives and
livelihoods of Burmese people," it said.

Meanwhile, the Indian government is reportedly working on an agreement on
the pipeline link proposal with the Tripura government. About 160
kilometers of the pipeline for transporting natural gas from Burma may
pass through Mizoram and Tripura.

But Kim said that, "I believe the proposed link will not be implemented at
all because they have told the same story in the past."

In April 2006, over 100 Burmese Shwe Gas activists in Malaysia and Bangkok
were arrested after being charged with illegal gathering when they
launched
demonstrations against Shwe Gas in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok .

However, activists in Thailand will take part in this third international
action.

"Thai students from the 'Young People for Democracy in Thailand' will join
the demonstration. Of course, we the Burmese have some security problems
here," said Wong Aung, spokesperson of the Thailand based Shwe Gas
Campaign Committee.

In August 2006, Daewoo discovered gas fields in the west coast of Burma in
the Bay of Bengal with gas valued between US $ 37 to 52 billion. The
fields from A-1 and A-3 can produce about 16-million cubic metres of gas
per day for 20 to 25 years, said the alert paper of the Shwe Gas Campaign
Committee-India.

Daewoo International is the largest stakeholder with 60 per cent share
while Korean Oil and Gas (KOGAS), a Korean state-owned company, holds 10
per cent share. India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) holds 20
per cent share, and the Gas Authority of India Ltd. (GAIL), 10 per cent.

_____________________________________

November 7, Irrawaddy
More migrant identity applications submitted to Burma - Sai Silp

Thailand’s Ministry of Labor will submit more than 40,000 applications
from Burmese migrant workers to the Burmese government to confirm their
nationality—the second batch to be sent in as many months, according to
Thai officials.

Charnsak Tosingkorn of the Department of Foreign Workers Administration in
Bangkok said the applications will be sent in the next few days. Some
10,000 applications were submitted in October.

“The first lot of documents is still in the process of being verified by
the Burmese government,” Charnsak said. “We are waiting for the results
before sending the next lot.”

The submission of applications follows a report in Burma’s state-run The
New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday that said the government had opened
temporary passport-issuing offices in three border towns: Myawaddy,
Tachilek and Kawthoung.

The issuing centers are expected to provide one-day visas only for Burmese
citizens wanting to work in Thailand, according to the report.

Issuing centers have not yet been created on the Thai side of the border,
as authorities are waiting for results from the worker identification
applications and approval from Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Once an applicant’s identity has been verified, the worker and their
employer will be issued a letter of recommendation from Thai authorities
to register at the border passport centers.

Thai officials expect the passport centers along the border to be up and
running by the end of this year.

But the process is somewhat more complicated, according to the Chiang
Mai-based Migrant Assistance Program, which works closely with Burmese
migrants in Thailand.

According to the group, the first batch of workers to be verified—many of
them ethnic majority Burmans—already possess Burmese identification cards,
and the process has caused confusion among the majority of migrant workers
that come from ethnic regions in Burma.

“There are only 4,000 workers from about 100,000 in Chiang Mai that
submitted the applications because most of them are ethnic Shan, who will
not be considered in the first round, a staff member at MAP told The
Irrawaddy. “And Thai and Burmese officials have not clarified how the new
procedures will affect ethnic workers.

About 740,000 workers from Burma have registered with the Department of
Employment in Thailand during 2006, and many more are working illegally,
particularly in the construction, fishing and agriculture industries.

The agreement between Thailand and Burma follows similar arrangements with
Laos and Cambodia. About 70,000 Laotian and Cambodian workers in Thailand
have now registered to be identified with the Thai Labor Department.

_____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

November 7, Associated Press
Top U.N. official to meet Myanmar leaders and detained Nobel laureate Aung
San Suu Kyi this week - Edith M. Lederer

United Nations: A top U.N. official will meet Myanmar's military leaders
and detained Nobel laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi
during a visit to the communist nation this week, the U.N. spokesman said
Tuesday.

Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari, who was
granted a rare opportunity to meet with Suu Kyi during his last visit in
May, is expected in Myanmar for a four-day visit starting Thursday, U.N.
spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"Mr. Gambari is expected to meet with senior officials and with actors
from across the political spectrum, including all those with whom he met
during his first visit in May of this year," Dujarric said.

Asked whether that includes Suu Kyi, Dujarric said, "he met with Aung San
Suu Kyi in that past and that would include her."

Dujarric said Secretary-General Kofi Annan "appreciates the invitation
extended to his envoy to visit the country once again, as part of a
process of dialogue that could lead to strengthened cooperation between
the United Nations and Myanmar."

"The secretary-general emphasize, however, that the continued value of
such engagement can only be demonstrated by tangible steps forward on
central issues such as human rights, democratic reform and national
reconciliation," he said.

The government has declined to release exact dates for Gambari's visit,
saying only that he was expected in the second week of November.

Myanmar's Information Minister Brig. Gen. Kyaw Hsan said last week that
Gambari was visiting at the invitation of the government and would also
observe meetings of the National Convention, which is establishing
guidelines for a new constitution.

The minister said last week that Gambari had not requested a meeting with
Suu Kyi, the country's opposition leader who has spent 11 of the last 17
years in detention, mostly under house arrest.
One diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that a
meeting with Suu Kyi was "still in the air."

The United Nations has been one of the louder voices calling for
democratic reforms in Myanmar, also called Burma, and the junta has
responded by barring U.N. special envoys from the country. The last one,
Razali Ismail, resigned in frustration shortly after a 2004 visit.

During his May visit, Gambari met Suu Kyi for about 45 minutes at a
government guesthouse where he stayed. He was the first foreigner to visit
with Suu Kyi since special envoy Razali saw her in March 2004.

On that visit, Gambari also met junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe and
other top junta leaders at the country's new administrative capital,
Naypyidaw, 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Yangon.

Suu Kyi has been kept in near solitary confinement at her lakeside home in
Yangon, and is generally not allowed outside visitors or telephone
contact.

Myanmar's military rulers seized power in 1988 after violently crushing a
pro-democracy movement. The junta called elections in 1990 but refused to
hand over power when the vote was won by the opposition party led by Suu
Kyi, who won a Nobel peace prize in 1991.

Western nations and Annan have repeatedly called for Suu Kyi's release.

____________________________________

November 7, Mizzima News
Burma number one internet enemy

Burma has been voted to be on the top of the list of countries into
internet censorship. This came to light following a vote online conducted
by the media watch dog Reporters Sans Frontiers on Tuesday.

Over 1,600 people voted against the Burmese government's internet
censorship while China was placed second with over 800 votes. Belarus was
in the third place with over 500 votes at 7:00 pm Tuesday evening. The
online voting continues.

The Paris based RSF removed Nepal, Maldives and Libya from its annual list
of Internet enemies while it listed 13 countries as enemies of the
internet including Burma, Belarus, China, Cuba, North Korea, Egypt, Iran,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam in its
2006 report published today.

"The Burmese government's Internet policies are even more repressive than
its Chinese and Vietnamese neighbours. The military junta filters
opposition websites. It keeps a very close watch on Internet cafes, in
which computers automatically execute screen captures every five minutes,
in order to monitor user activity", said RSF in its website.

"The aim is two-fold: to defend the profitable long-distance
telecommunications market, which is controlled by state companies, as well
as to stop cyber-dissidents from using a means of communication that is
hard to monitor", it added.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

November 6, mongabay.com
Stopping deforestation could net Burma $1 billion

Its status as a pariah state aside, Burma could earn hundreds of millions
of dollars for cutting its deforestation rate under a carbon-trading
initiative proposed by a coalition of developing countries and under
discussion this week at U.N. climate talks in Nairobi, Kenya.

Burma, which is also known as Myanmar, has one of the highest
deforestation rates in the world. Each year some 466,000 hectares of
forest cleared are per year, according to U.N. data, contributing 32-93
megatons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Under a proposed carbon
finance initiative, mitigating these emissions could be worth anywhere
from $128 million to over a $1.8 billion to industrialized countries.

The way it would work is though the adoption of an "avoided deforestation"
strategy to addressing carbon trading. By reducing deforestation that
would otherwise occur in developing countries, industrialized countries
could effectively "offset" emissions limits set under international
agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. Money from industrialized countries
would flow into forest conservation fund that Burma could drawn upon
depending on its success in reducing its deforestation rate. The strategy
could help fight climate change at a low cost while, at the same time
improving living standards for some of the world's poorest people,
safeguarding biodiversity, and preserving other ecosystem services.

Carbon finance could boost per capita GDP in Burma from 5-20 percent.

This paper is based on an earlier mongabay.com article: Avoided
deforestation could help fight third world poverty under global warming
pact